What We’ve Learned from COVID-19 — and How We Can Use the Knowledge to Improve Patients’ and Providers’ Lives

// By Dalal Haldeman, Ph.D. //

The great difficulties we’ve faced in 2020 with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic are clear for us all, though our experiences may differ in the details, whether navigating patient surges or having our daily routines altered in ways both subtle and profound — or in the most horrific of scenarios, losing loved ones.

With ongoing uncertainty around response to the outbreak and vaccine distribution, the chaos of the recent election cycle, and ever-stark social inequity, the political climate seems only to compound our path to collective healing. These matters obviously require depth of compassion, coordination, and expertise from across a host of disciplines and sectors.

But as a digital strategy leader in the healthcare marketing space, I ask myself what I and others in our field can do to empathetically help our patients, providers, and society move safely through the storm. What can we control and help influence amid this sea of incertitude?

I see our role as twofold:

1. Now more than ever, we must improve our work to make our health systems easy to navigate for patients and providers.
2. We must be unflinchingly brave and thorough as we work to influence behaviors and educate the public and one another about the realities we face — especially as we are now on the precipice of various vaccines.

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